"Can you find me a bigger needle, Rosie? This is one is far too small, and I keep stabbing myself," James said. He held his palm out to me and showed me the needle, it seemed to blend into his skin.

"How much bigger?"

"It doesn't matter, just bigger than this."

I took the needle from his hand and walked to the small set of drawers that kept the needles and additions for the garments. James used them to try and keep a little organised and keep up the organisation I had put in place a month or so before. It had been somewhat successful, but I could see him going back to his old ways rather quickly, he had never been all that fond of organising. How he would cope without me if I agreed to take up Doctor Ealing's offer was beyond me.

We had agreed that the trial day would take place on Friday so the rest of the week would be spent helping James finish up anything important at the shop. With the party fast approaching and time running out to complete his orders on time, James had decided it would be all hands on deck. He had even managed to rope Kitty into helping him out, she had been tasked with quality checking all of the garments completed to make sure they were up to standard.

My tasks were less important, and I just followed James around until he needed something from me and that was a rare occasion. James had poured himself into the work almost immediately, working on the intricate beading for Charlotte's dress before anything else. The beads had arrived that morning and James seemed to visibly deflate knowing he only had to be bead one dress and not three. Mrs Ealing's decision to take her business elsewhere benefitted all of us.

From the drawer, I exchanged the small needle for a slightly bigger one and passed it back to James, watching as he threaded the needle and returned to the beading following the pattern, he had drawn on the sheet of paper. All of his attention went into the beading leaving me with nothing to do but stand in the corner and watch him. I hoped that my day with Doctor Ealing would be a little more exciting than with James, but my experiences with Doctor Ealing before had told me that working in a Doctor's office would always be unpredictable.

Some days would be really busy, others would be rather dull. I hoped Friday would be somewhere in between the two so I could experience what it would be like but also be able to take a break somewhere.

"Why don't you go out the back and use your chalk or something? I'm going to be here for a while," James said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, go on. You unnerve me when you stand in the corner like that."

"All the more reason to stay, I think."

"I don't think so. Go on, go. Watch the weather as well, it looks like it might rain."

"Or snow."

"It's not cold enough. Yet."

I huffed and headed into the office, grabbing my tin of chalk from the desk and sidestepping through the door and into the small room that led to the back ally way. The chalk drawings Robert and I had done the other day had remained on the stone due to the lack of rain since we drew them. They had faded slightly, but still visible against the grey stone. My drawing, a forest of trees with a river running through it, remained on the stone but I shuffled past it to find a new space for a new drawing.

Robert's drawing, which he had wanted to keep hidden from me, was also still on the stone but I refused to look at it. He hadn't wanted to show me what it was when he had been drawing and even though he wasn't there, I still didn't want to look at it. There had been a reason he didn't want to show me, and I didn't want to break the trust he had in me not to look.

Instead, I found a stone in the corner and sat with my back to Robert's drawing so I wouldn't look at it. I took the chalk out of the tin and started to sketch lightly against the ground although I had no idea what I wanted to draw. If all my drawings ended up being of forests with a lake, it would get rather dull rather quickly. With the chalk in hand, I set about drawing a butterfly similar to the one Christopher had hanging in his office. Back at the Ealing's, I used to watch the butterflies as they flew through the woods and by the river on my day off.

We never saw butterflies at the factory.

After almost half an hour of drawing, the butterfly was complete and I rocked back against my heels and pushed myself up, looking down on the drawing and chewing on the inside of my cheek. I packed the chalk away and stepped back, turning towards the shop to see if James had something else for me to do. Yet, I didn't want to turn away without seeing Robert's drawing first. There had to be a reason he kept it from me and not just because it wasn't a very good drawing.

Despite knowing that looking at the drawing would have been wrong and go against everything my mind was telling me, I wanted to see just what it was that Robert had kept so secret several days previously. I turned around slowly and looked down at the drawing that he had put so much of his time into.

From the ground, looking up at me was a chalk drawing of me. Robert had spent all that time drawing an image of me on the ground and I knew then why he didn't want me to see it. I had never shown him any of the drawings I had done of him until Mrs Ealing had found them in my room and I expect he just wanted to wait for the rain to wash it away.

What I didn't understand is why, out of everything in the world, he would have chosen to draw me and not something or someone else.

The answer to my question, however, would have to wait.

A few seconds later, the cloud above me burst and I was soaked through within seconds. I gathered up my chalk and made a quick dash into the shop, but I was already wet. I glanced back to watch as the rain slowly started to wash Robert's drawing off the stone.

I darted through the backroom and into the shop, pushing my hair off my face and standing dripping wet in the main shop. James turned to look at me and appeared to bite his lip to keep from laughing; I probably looked a state. After a few minutes of trying not to laugh and looking like he was about to chew through his bottom lip, he spoke.

"I did tell you it might rain."

"You did, but you didn't tell me it was all going to come down at once and soak me in seconds. Besides, it was your idea for me to go outside."

"True. There is a towel in the office if you want to dry off, just don't drip water all over my paperwork."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"I might be."

"I hate you sometimes."

James didn't reply, he just grinned at me and returned his attention to the beading, but I knew he was laughing at me by how his shoulders moved. I turned away from him and walked into the office, pulling a towel off the shelf and unfolding it. Somehow, I doubt it would dry me off completely and I would have to spend the day in slightly damp clothes, not that it would be the first time that had happened.

During Matilda's birthday party several months before, Mr Warrington had soaked me with a bucket of water in a form of entertainment. I had spent half an hour sitting in front of the fire in Samuel's home near the stables, but my clothing remained damp for a little while after I returned to the kitchen. If a fire couldn't dry me properly, I had my doubts that a towel would. Still, I unfolded the towel and made an attempt to dry my hair before wrapping the towel over my shoulders. It stopped my hair from soaking the back of my dress again, but it didn't do all that much to dry the rest of me.

I left my tin of chalk in the office and returned to the main room where James continued to the thread the beads on Charlotte's dress. He had stopped laughing, but I knew if he so much as looked at me he would start all over again. One of the few things I hadn't missed in the factory had been my brothers winding me although I always returned the favour and I intended on continuing that tradition. James would get what was coming to him for laughing at me, there was no doubt about that.

The bell above the door rang and I turned to watch Doctor Ealing take down his umbrella and shake it out just outside the door. He dropped it into the umbrella stand and swiped his hand along his arm to remove the water droplets that clung to his suit. The twins and Robert were with him but neither of the twins were that graceful in taking down their umbrellas and both managed to leave a puddle in the doorway.

"To what do we owe the pleasure, Doctor Ealing?" Kitty said, passing a mug of tea and placing one on the table for James.

"The twins wanted to see Rosie and since we're still with Lady Thatcher I agreed. I hope it isn't too much hassle."

"Not at all, I'm just finishing up the beadwork for Miss Charlotte's dress," James said. He winked at Charlotte.

"My dress is going to look better than Matilda's!"

No one said anything. I expect the twins knew that James was no longer making Matilda's dress or that she wouldn't be attending the party, but I doubt they understood it. The fact that Matilda and Mrs Ealing had returned to the house on their own spoke volumes about how Doctor Ealing felt about them. In all honesty, I didn't feel all that bad about having been involved in the situation between them. Whatever happened to Mrs Ealing would be none of my concern in the foreseeable future and I didn't intend to dwell on them any longer then I had to.

"What happened to you?" Doctor Ealing said as he noticed me in the corner with the towel and mug of tea.

"James thought it would be a good idea to send me outside to do some chalk drawing and I got caught in the rain when it started. I'm soaked."

"You'll dry off," James said, once again trying not to laugh. I walked up behind him and, with my free hand, I tapped him on the back of the head. "Ouch!"

"I didn't do it."

"Why don't you and the twins go into the office and find something to do? Just don't get my paperwork wet."

"I doubt you'd be able to tell."

"Go."

I stuck my tongue out at him and herded the twins into the office to find something to do. The room was still a mess and it took everything in me not to go through and organise it, he would kill me if I so much as touched the paper. James always said he had a system to keeping the office clean, but his system just appeared to be throwing the paper around the room and hoping for the best. It annoyed me more than he probably knew and one day I resolved to organise it all, and I didn't intend on telling him.

The twins jumped up on the chairs on the other side of the desk, just as they had when the Ealing's had first appeared at the shop a few weeks before. I placed my mug on the table and sat across from them, pulling some clean sheets of paper from the drawer and handing them and a pencil to both of them. I hoped this time they would do an actual drawing rather than the message they had left me last time.

I took a sip from my tea, trying hard not to recoil at the taste as the twins grabbed the pencils and set about drawing. Charlotte always stuck her tongue out slightly when she concentrated on her drawing, something I had seen Robert do on multiple occasions. Zachariah, on the other hand, could hardly sit still and spent a good few minutes bouncing up and down in his chair before finally settling down and drawing. He had always been a little enthusiastic when it came to breaking away from his normal routine, and this was one of those times.

Oddly enough, I had seen Robert do the exact same thing before. On a day he was supposed to be doing his studying, Doctor Ealing told him he would be needed at the office and he spent a good half an hour or so bouncing on the balls of his feet. It took a few blunt words from Doctor Ealing for him to stop, but it was quite funny to see him so excited about going to the office rather than spending the day reading a medical book.

Even though I had spent so many months with the twins, often finding myself looking after them when they became a little too much for the nursery maid, I had never noticed just how similar to Robert they were. The little things they did that were so much like him stuck out now more than ever, but I didn't know why. I didn't even know I had noticed so many of the smaller things Robert did in his daily life.

It could have meant nothing, but deep down I knew it did.

"Rosie?" Charlotte said after a few minutes.

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did." I laughed, although I always hated James when he said it. "Go on."

"Why don't Mother and Matilda like you?"

"I don't know, Charlotte. I've been trying to work that one out for myself, but it's not something you should worry about."

"I don't like it. Mother and Father had a fight after Aunt Sybil's ball. We could hear them. It was about something Matilda did, but we didn't know what. Now, Mother's gone home and we're staying with Aunt Sybil."

"Mr Greyson wants to see you two," Robert said from the doorway. "Go on, go."

The twins dropped their pencils on the desk and climbed from their chairs to return to the shop floor to find out what James had for them. I slumped back against the chair and ran my hands over my face as they left, grateful Robert had swooped in before I had to answer Charlotte's questions. No matter how long I thought about, I don't think I would have been able to answer her anyway. I didn't plan on getting involved in any more of the Ealing's issues, but with the twins, it was almost impossible to dodge their questions because they were so persistent.

Robert shuffled into the room and took a seat on one of the chairs the twins had just vacated. He picked up their drawings and took a look at them, spinning the sheets of paper and holding them at an angle to try and identify what they had drawn. He furrowed his eyebrows and stuck his tongue out, but after a few minutes, he just looked at me, shrugged and placed the piece of paper back on the desk.

"I'm not sure if it was a cow, a cat or a combination of both," he said, laughing slightly.

"Don't be mean," I said.

"Sorry." He pulled a face. "I take it that was relatively good timing? I heard the twins mention Mother."

"Hm, Charlotte was posing some questions I didn't exactly have the answer to. She also said your parents fought the other day and that they could hear it."

"They probably could. It was the day Matilda came to see you, Father wasn't all too happy with what she had done, and they argued. Aunt Sybil had to step in because she saw the twins standing at the top of the stairs. This is doing them more harm than anyone else."

"This isn't the best of situations for anyone."

"No, it's not." He looked at me. "This isn't your fault, you know. You haven't done anything to cause this. It's Mother's fault for refusing to back down even though she knows she's wrong. If I'm being honest, this has been a long time coming."

That didn't make me feel any better.

"Except nothing happened until I turned up."

Robert pushed himself off the chair, grabbed it by the back and dragged it round to join me on the other side. He put the chair beside me and sat on it, resting his elbows on his knees and grabbing my hands from my lap. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Trying to understand Robert's mind had always been a confusing task and I stopped trying to understand it a long time ago.

"None of this is your fault. It never has been. Mother and Matilda have never been all that keen on our servants, it's why we got through so many of them so quickly. Father always hated it and he knew what he was getting himself into when he asked you to be a servant. Between you and me, I think he did it deliberately because he knew it would annoy her.

"You told me the other week that I needed to stop blaming myself for things that were out of my control and it is about time you did the same thing. My parents fighting has nothing to do with you."

I knew he was right I hated it. The previous day I had been telling Esther not to blame herself for what Mrs Ealing had done, but I had been doing the same thing. Whatever happened to be going on between Doctor and Mrs Ealing had nothing to do with me and I needed to realise that if I planned on moving on from everything that happened over the past few weeks and months.

That was easier said than done.

"You're right," I said.

"I know I am." He grinned. "Come on, I heard the word biscuits just now and I'm hungry.

"You're always hungry."

I shook my head but pushed myself off the chair and shuffled from the room.

Robert still held one of my hands. 

~~~

A/N - We're back! Chapter Twenty-Seven and we're blitzing through the story! I almost forgot to update because I've been so busy writing Maddox Academy xD I still have two more chapters to go before I finish TAG!

So, Robert's drawing from the other week was of Rosie! Thoughts?

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to ahumanbeing2000 who has voted on all three books! It means a lot!

First Published - July 14th, 2020